I wish people were giving 8” jointers away around here!!! I guess it must depend on the area…not too many used wood working machines for sale in my neck of the woods. You either take what you can get, if you find one for sale at all, or you just go ahead and buy new. I’d like to think I could just pick whichever 8” used jointer I wanted from some existing pile. Does the Jet that is for sale have a Shelix or helical type cutter head on it?? Not sure what year Jet started using them. If so it has to be considered…they don’t give those away and they are nice. If you are just doing edges and not a lot of face jointing then the 6” matters less. If you are edging a lot of long boards than I would be more worried about a long bed machine, that makes it so much easier. Still, even if you are not doing a lot of face jointing right now you probably will eventually. That Jet looks like it was not used much from the photo, if that’s the actual one for sale. If a 6” would do it for me and that one is as good as it looks in the photo I’d pay $750 for a $1200 plus machine.

Thanks – I just started my search but for sure no 8” in my state! (Oregon).

It is pretty much not used for 5 years old – looks great in the photos. I’ll probably keep looking for now and keep my eye on that. No helix head – straight knives and no quick change as they call it with their newer models. There is another similar jet 6” for $550 but prob needs new knives close to my home.

I wish people were giving 8” jointers away around here!!! I guess it must depend on the area…not too many used wood working machines for sale in my neck of the woods. You either take what you can get, if you find one for sale at all, or you just go ahead and buy new. I d like to think I could just pick whichever 8” used jointer I wanted from some existing pile. Does the Jet that is for sale have a Shelix or helical type cutter head on it?? Not sure what year Jet started using them. If so it has to be considered…they don t give those away and they are nice. If you are just doing edges and not a lot of face jointing then the 6” matters less. If you are edging a lot of long boards than I would be more worried about a long bed machine, that makes it so much easier. Still, even if you are not doing a lot of face jointing right now you probably will eventually. That Jet looks like it was not used much from the photo, if that s the actual one for sale. If a 6” would do it for me and that one is as good as it looks in the photo I d pay $750 for a $1200 plus machine.

I picked up my Grizzly G0490 8” Parallelogram Jointer in May for $750 (it is $1,364 new with shipping). It was in great condition and listed on Facebook Marketplace for $800.

I had just bought a new Dewalt 735x Planer (with extension tables and extra knives) for $450 on Amazon and was in need of a jointer as a companion so began searching. Six inch jointers are a quite common listing (some good, some not so great), but 8” jointers are a lot more difficult to find so when the Grizzly popped up, it quickly caught my attention. While it really wasn’t in the budget, my CFO (and loving wifey) gave the green light and within hours of the jointer being posted, we had made the 140 mile round trip and had it sitting in my shop.

I’ve found that frequent and persistent searching is needed to find the best deals, and to quickly reach out if you find something you are interested in. The better items often don’t last long, particularly if it is for a fair price.

Last month I found a new Grizzly G0548Z 2hp Dust Collector, with 1 micron canister filter listed on FB Marketplace for $250 ($604 new with shipping). The seller had bought it new but before assembling he purchased a larger unit at an auction so the Grizzly had been sitting never used ever since (the filter, impeller and all interior components were immaculate, though the outside had accumulated a coating of a couple years of general garage dust (it wasn’t in his woodworking shop)). Unfortunately when we arrived, he was unable to find the parts that went with it, so while he was searching the building, I added up the missing parts (about $40), and when he was unable to locate the missing items, he ended up giving me the DC for $200 which more than made up for the parts & shipping. Again, just a few hours after the equipment was posted online and with a 200 mile round trip, I had it sitting in my shop, and a couple days later I had the unit cleaned up and looking brand new with the needed parts from Grizzly installed.

While you might not find what you are looking for (at least perhaps not right away), there are listings coming and going every day and with a lot of persistence (and a little luck), there are goodies to be found.

Another thing to keep in mind is that if you find something that will work for your needs, but isn’t quite what you really want, you might be able to buy and get by with it, then upgrade to something else later on. The original buyer will have already taken the hit for the price difference from ‘new’ to ‘used’, and by buying second hand (and if you take care of the equipment), you might be able to later sell it and get what you paid for it, maybe even more or hopefully for not much less. Good luck!

Thanks for the replies! Good thinking on maybe ‘getting by’ with the used 6” (if the price is right) and re-selling later to upgrade. The quest continues, but I’m really looking forward to a good jointer and not dealing with trying to get TS glue up joints, which can be done – sometimes for me I feel like it is more luck than science with using the TS for that, and when it comes to glue up I am OCD and don’t want to even think about wanting to see a seam – I want it to look like one piece with all the time.